1. Field
The present invention relates to a laser scanning apparatus and a laser scanning microscope.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general laser scanning microscope is provided with a galvanometer mirror which scans in an X direction with laser light over a sample plane and a galvanometer mirror which scans in a Y direction with laser light over the sample plane. If these two galvanometer mirrors are cooperatively controlled, it is also possible to conduct an observation (hereinafter, refer to as “free line observation”) in which a scanning trajectory of laser light (hereinafter, refer to as “scanning line”) is expressed by a free-form curve. For instance, if the free line observation is conducted with the scanning line so as to trace a cord-shaped axial filament of a nerve cell, it is also possible to capture a high-speed change generated in the axial filament.
However, details of an actual scanning line are not always set as designated by a user. This is because a movement of the galvanometer mirror is dependent not only on a waveform of a driving signal given from an exterior but also on an inertia of the mirror, a steepness of the scanning line, a scanning speed and the like. For this reason, in order to find an optimal scanning condition, the user needs to repeatedly conduct a trial and error process while changing the scanning conditions.
Meanwhile, when a sample is an organism, it is vulnerable to damage, and when the sample is fluorescent-dyed, a color fading occurs, so that a number of irradiations of laser light onto the sample has to be kept to the minimum.